I arrived in Sri Lanka at 10pm, went to the ATM, grabbed a SIM and off I went to find a tuk tuk to take me to my airport hostel.

Sri Lanka

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I arrived in Sri Lanka at 10pm, went to the ATM, grabbed a SIM and off I went to find a tuk tuk to take me to my airport hostel.


Reviews from the hostel said it would cost me 250 to go to the hostel so I knew I would have to bargain to get that price. The first two guys asked for 500 rupees and I told them the hostel said 250 so I didn't go with them. Then came an older man, he said 500, I said 250, he said 400, I said no, he went away. Thirty seconds later he came back and said 300... I said yes, after all 50 rupees is 33 US cents.

I am not a big fan of bargaining just because it feels odd but at the same time you want to pay a fair price for what you are getting. Many times  paying double for a service is not a big deal because double still means very cheap. For example, this tuk tuk ride was supposed to be 250 rupees ($1,65) and I could have paid 500 rupees ($3.30) because I can totally afford it and is very cheap for a tourist but accepting that price means making the standard price higher for everybody else!

After a good night sleep in Negombo I decided to start my journey through Sri Lanka Immediately and head over to the "cultural triangle." When I left KL I had no idea on what to do in Sri Lanka but in the airplane I decided to switch places with a family and ended up sitting next to a couple who live in Israel (she was from the US and he was Argentinian) and had just spent 2 weeks in Sri Lanka. They gave me tips and told me what route to take so this morning I was feeling ready to take on Sri Lanka!

I left my hostel before 10am and took the local bus for 20 rupees to Negombo bus station. When I entered the bus everybody (and I mean everybody) stared at me.


I had to take a selfie!!!




Once in the bus station in Negombo and got the "easy bus" to kurunegala for 195 rupees. The ride was in an air con mini bus and took a little over two hours to get there so it wasn't all that bad.
Once we got kurunegala bus terminal I got off the bus and it was madness! Hundreds of people going all over the place, the bus terminal had at least fifty busses, lots of honking but thankfully everybody was so friendly and asked where I was going and they pointed me in the right direction.


This journey got me thinking about what I love the most about traveling and it's not the UNESCO sites or the beautiful beaches. The part of traveling that I enjoy the most is the one that I don't write about, the one that pictures can't be taken, is that feeling of being in a crowded bus, the chills of seeing something for the first time that makes your body tinkle but I can't put the experiences into words. I am not a writer, and I am a very private person so many times my comfort level is to just share the very superficial aspect of my trip and the things that can be seen through a picture but traveling is so much more than that, traveling is a journey that changes you and that changes your perspective of the world and that takes  you out of your comfort zone. 

Anyway, back to my bus ride! I just loved this bus ride with the open windows, my hair flying everywhere, and the green scenery with millions of coconut trees, mango trees, and so so many green hills and mountains (plus the Indian music playing in the bus added an extra cool factor to the ride.) The journey reminded me a lot of that in Bohol and it's beautiful scenery.
I saw so many stands with fruits on the way that my mouth started watering from the thought of having some green mango! Yum!


Mango stand on the side of the road

After another long 2 hour ride to Dambulla I got dropped off and got out when the guy told me. Strangely we weren't dropped by a bus station, instead there were a couple of guys standing there, immediately they said that sigiriya was very far, I said I was just going to the junction and one of them said "500 rupees" HA! I laughed! I said it's only 10 mins away and they said it was 23 km away... not true! It was 2:30pm and one of the guys said that the bus would stop there but the next bus was at 3:30. I was super confused; by then 2 guys were already talking to the Chinese girls from the bus and offering them a place to stay and taking them on the tuk tuk. I knew they were all talking non sense because there was no way that the next bus going to sigiriya was in an hour and was going to stop in front of us where there was no bus stop. I started walking in the direction of sigiriya and in less than 3 minutes I found a bus stop with the local bus going there. I got in and quickly the driver took my bag and asked me to sit. Super nice!

Fifteen/ twenty minutes in a super duper slow bus I was dropped off at the junction and walked to my hostel... the jungle vista!

The hostel is kind of new and super cool! I slept in a teepee on the second floor but there were hammocks, swing beds, Dorms, and private rooms. The hostel was to its full capacity so it was perfect to meet other travelers. 
My teepee for the night!
Laura on the swing

Common sleeping area with swinging beds!
That afternoon I joined a group to walk over to the lake and see if we could spot any elephants or buffalos... we didn't.



At night we had a massive community dinner in the main room! 
Family dinner



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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com